


Supernatural 3.09 review

by yourlibrarian



Series: Supernatural Reviews [12]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode Review, Episode: s03e09 Malleus Maleficarum, Gen, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 08:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30103389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: Originally posted February 1, 2008.
Series: Supernatural Reviews [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2202249
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Supernatural 3.09 review

In my attempts to stay unspoiled the only thing I knew about this episode was that Ruby would appear. I had high hopes for it when I saw Ben Edlund had written it as he tends to write well-constructed episodes with layering to them. And to some degree I think that this was seen again here. In particular the way the story led from "Victims of the Week" to "Villain of the Week" to "Oops, no, different villain of the week" to "Hey, Ruby backstory!" reminded me of the way he did something similar in Nightshifter where we at first think we're dealing with local law enforcement, only to have Henricksen arrive and think he's part of some X-Files department, only to discover, nope, he has made it a mission to get the Winchesters. So I definitely appreciated the long lead-in because I think the story would have been flat without it.

I haven't read any other reviews about the episode yet, but I'm guessing people either liked or hated "Malleus Maleficarum." And really, I can understand it going either way. To me the real plus of the episode was the structure and the new bits of arc information we get from it. The downside was the usual dangling inconsistencies that always frustrate me with SPN, and, oh yeah, the fact that the episode isn't really about the Winchesters.

Whether or not that killed any interest in the episode seems to rest on how interesting you find Ruby. Frankly, from day one I liked her character better than Bela's, our other major new character this season, and this episode made that clear to me. One of the major criticisms of "Red Skies" was that the story was too Bela focused. I actually disagree with that, I think it was equally balanced there with Bela and the Winchesters. The problem was the way in which that screen time was spent (and given Kripke's recent comments, he seems to agree), and the way in which Bela's character is being written. To me the concept of Bela's character was actually an intriguing choice. However whether it's the writing, the acting or (I really think) both, Bela comes off more as an artifice than a character. With the exception of a few moments, Bela just doesn't seem like a real person, she seems fragile and artificial. Part of this is because to some degree she is. Just like Dean in the early part of this season, most of what she's showing the world is just a front. The trick for the actor then is to make you interested in finding out what's behind it. So far with Bela, I just haven't been.

Then there's Ruby. Ruby isn't really a front –- to some degree she is just what she seems to be. It's what she's been saying that are lies, first leading Sam to think she's a hunter, then to let him think she can help Dean, and, possibly also, to think he can do something about this whole demon war thing. In fact Ruby's motives fascinate me because she clearly needs something from Sam, but what she needs and to what end still isn't clear. Also, whether or not she actually has any feeling for him one way or the other rather than simply as her means to an end is also ambiguous. And I think ambiguity is always good in writing. Also, when I speak of "feeling" I don't really mean any kind of romantic/sexual interest. We've found out that demons can clearly feel for people –- I don't know too many who think that the YED was being disingenuous when he called Sam his favorite and preferred him as his puppet prince. So I think they can feel interest for people as individuals outside of simple expediency.

To get back to the episode structure, the problem here is that it is the Winchesters who act as a plot device, to keep us going from one apparent plotline to the next. It is their stumbling upon one piece of evidence after another that leads us to the final showdown between Ruby and Tammi. There are a few moments of importance between them, but not many.

To start at the beginning, wow, someone did a nice job of cleaning up that bathroom before Sam and Dean came to investigate. That bathroom was whiter than white given the mess Janet's death made. Also, heh to the scene in the rain as they left. One of the lovely side effects of working in Vancouver. I'm betting it was raining a lot harder than it seems on screen. I was wondering if maybe the scene was moved inside the car for that reason. (Was anyone clear on where this case was supposed to take place?)

We get a bit of exposition on witches. Really? Witches are grosser than some of the other creatures you've run into Dean? Ok then. I felt like that bit of dialogue was added in (along with the gratuitous Blair Witch reference) to establish the plotline's horror cred. I also couldn't help wondering if it was because the entire episode was female oriented, from the victim to the central character to the ultimate villain.

In fact the way that witchcraft was handled in the early part of the episode rather bothered me (I couldn't help thinking of Xander's long run-on lyric in OMWF: " It could be witches, Some evil witches, Which is ridiculous 'Cause witches, They were persecuted Wicca good And love the earth And women power, And I’ll be over here."). However I do think that by the episode's end there was a kind of distinction that the women involved were selfishly (and rather banally) motivated, and would just as easily have used any other tool than magic to achieve their ends. Still, I could also have done without the scene of Ron (which seemed to be completely unnecessary in any plot sense and just ended up costing the show another speaking part). That whole idea of men being suspicious of what women get up to when they gather alone was rather reminiscent of the whole Salem witch trial paranoia, and it wasn't a particularly pleasant reminder. The fact that it was a "book club" cover chosen seemed to me to be a small dig in its own right, as well as a reminder that we hardly ever see anyone reading in the show (no one ever brings any books for the book discussions). It was also a rather clunky way of leading the viewer to the "Ah, this is the coven!" discovery. Dean's "Burn, witch, burn" line by contrast was anything but subtle.

So we have Paul Dutton sitting in his car not listening to Nazareth's "Love Hurts," which was apparently the intended song for that scene, but "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" (Poison struck me as a little late for the show's musical era). The "I Put a Spell on You" bit rather reminded me of the "Cold As Ice" drop-in from "No Exit". And then Sam and Dean show up and Sam goes straight under the dashboard for the hex bag as if he's got hex-bag-ESP (too bad that fails him later in the motel, huh?) Maybe this is because it's raining again and there's no need for two search scenes.

We cut to Amanda who apparently feels it necessary to do spells in her lingerie (possibly the very same lingerie Janet was wearing) and she gets killed off while pressing her boobs up against a glass table. I sure hope we're going to get a Winchester topless shot before this season is up.

Some moments of interest in the next scene: Dean calling in the body, which I don't think we've seen yet (except maybe in Heart, I don't quite remember); Dean's amusing sympathy for the rabbit -- they do have some things in common, I guess 😉 (I'm just waiting for someone to pop up with Weechester fic now, where Dean had a pet rabbit as a child); and lastly Sam being the one to discover the hex bag (because he's got the ESP and also because Dean would have been distracted by the glass-smooshed boobs).

One other thing I was struck by in that scene is JP's growth as an actor. I kept wondering why JA kept shouting his lines, whereas JP had some nice subtlety going in what was the less interesting dialogue. I noticed the same thing in the scene where Ruby appears. There's something really rewarding as a viewer to see that development.

Then we have Elizabeth setting herself up as the sympathetic character with her reluctance to continue in their evil ways, and her discomfort in being questioned the next day. I guess virtually everyone in this show is too young to remember the 70s but I had to groan at the BTO shoutout. I blinked though at Dean's mention of "victory garden." He's way too young to remember the origin of that (or, presumably, to be a watcher of the PBS show). I also have to assume in this nighttime scene that the two spent the afternoon doing research in the local newspaper on these women.

So then we have another scene of Sam showing himself to be perfectly willing to kill people without, apparently, any certainty of any of them actually being murderers or doing anything more evil than rigging raffles and craft contests. Before that can be looked at though, we have Ruby's appearance.

I thought that scene had a good amount of tension among the three, with Dean being completely confrontational, Ruby being simultaneously dismissive of him and anxious about her mission, and Sam being clearly torn between the two. In an odd way it reminded me of a replay of the three Winchester men (also in stopped cars in the middle of the night) only this time with Sam being the one in the middle, Ruby being close-mouthed and mysterious, and Dean giving in to a hair-trigger temper. I wondered if some of that wasn't intentional in also demonstrating the brothers' role reversal.

I also had to wonder, for the umpteenth time, how it is that Ruby tracks Sam. Does it have something to do with the Colt? Because in this same episode Tammi repeats the claim that demons have been looking for Sam. Why is it Ruby finds him with such ease? Sam doesn't seem to be staying in touch with her in any way. Also, she can stop a car? Presumably through its electrical system (we see this with the motel light flickers in the final scene), but I hadn't realized before that that was indicative of any demonic presence so much as the YED's.

Then we have the Sam and Dean confrontation scene, where we discover that presumably Sam and Dean have talked about Casey after Sam killed her. I had to laugh at Sam pointing out that if Ruby wanted them dead all she had to do was stop saving them. On the other hand, I think it says something when your two heroes are alive thanks to demonic intervention and apparently the sheer luck of not being found. It just highlights their lack of agency in this episode and, to some degree, this whole season.

Hee, however, to "So you're mad because I'm starting to agree with you?" There's something rather amusing about the thought that seeing himself in Sam shakes Dean. It's also rather interesting in a character study sort of way to think of how Dean learned to define himself, not just as being like his father, but perhaps also as being "not-Sam." That in some ways Sam not being Sam also bothers him because it makes him less sure of who he is.

Of course on the surface the conversation is all about how Sam feels that he's somehow inadequate to face the business of killing without becoming someone else, namely his longtime role model, Dean. It makes me wonder how it is that Sam actually sees Dean, and himself. Does he see him as harder, tougher, smarter (in an instinct sort of way) than himself? Or is it that he sees Dean as more decisive? It's not clear, but a point of speculation.

We're interrupted by Dean's near-death scene and Sam's remarkably haphazard search of the room. Granted we probably don't need 5 minutes of Sam turning it upside down to get the point but, um, knifing open the center of a mattress instead of the edges? Or looking in the nightstand? More importantly, how close is the coven that Sam thinks taking off to go confront them will in any way occur in time when Dean is already on the ground coughing up blood? Would you leave your loved one there to die alone like that? It wouldn't have taken Sam more than a minute to grab Dean and shove him in the car (and Dean was in no condition to stop him).

But apparently we need the scene of Ruby coming in to save Dean with some magical elixir which she cooked up out in the middle of nowhere on the spur of the moment since Dean not only lives, but is only minutes behind Sam in reaching the coven. I am also going to assume that he hot wired a car (or maybe Ruby jump started it with her electrical mojo) and took off with her after Sam since the two are there within moments of one another. I did have to laugh a bit at her smashing open the door, which Sam didn't lock, so there was really no need for the dramatic entrance. Also given Dean's bleeding esophagus and his position on the bed she was as likely to finish him off by drowning him that way but, whatever. I kind of appreciated the effort at humor after Dean gets stuck with the "You saved my life" line, but the scene would have played a lot better had he not said that at all. Every audience member out there already realizes that's what she did and I can't see Dean so willing to state that fact any more than he ever wants to acknowledge he's wrong about something. It reminds me of the clunker "Don't go away mad, just go away" line from "Bad Day at Black Rock."

I find it kind of interesting that Sam is suddenly concerned about saving Elizabeth when he went there perfectly willing to kill all of them. I'm going to go with the idea that Sam finds it hard to actually overcome his instinct for mercy, even though he's been working on it. Big reveal there though in that demons can also now stop bullets. Rather neutralizes the usefulness of the Colt. Of course every time there's a new weapon developed on the show the demons find a way around it, otherwise things would become too predictable. However Sam and Dean are going to have to find a way around the whole "pinned to the wall" business or they really aren't going to get anywhere in their demon-hunting.

Which is the problem, because they don't get anywhere here, but must rely on Ruby to come save them. Given that Tammi could have snapped their necks with a wave of her hand, they really are lucky she wanted to toy with them first.

Not to mention provide exposition. Her dialogue seems to be there largely to mitigate the idea that Elizabeth doesn't deserve her eventual death. She also starts dropping the breadcrumb trail to the idea of a leader who, I'm guessing, is the one who holds Dean's contract as a bargaining chip for Sam, should Sam ever amass any actual power.

That little sequence where Dean appears and promptly gets thrown into a wall looked great on film but I really can't believe the show keeps letting him do stunts like that. All it's going to take is a bit of mistiming for the series to be completely sidelined by an injury. (I also think JA's probably going to regret some of those moves in a few years, if Alexis Denisof's and James Marsters' experience are any example).

I do think though that he and Ruby arrived together, with his glaringly obvious "aside" to Sam as a bit of support for Ruby's act. I was amused though by his interest in seeing how far she and Tammi would go. Nice fight sequence, though I have to agree with Tammi wondering what it is Ruby is after with Sam and Dean. I did laugh at Dean's enthusiasm in stabbing Tammi at the end.

So demons have their own exorcism ritual? How does that work that they exorcise someone else and not themselves? Does it work on intent? Also, how does Ruby clean up the mess? Does she make the bodies and blood disappear? (Sounds like demon house cleaning services would go over big time).

I also had to wonder why Sam had such a hard time getting up at the end. Dean was the one who got thrown into a wall (seeming to me much harder than Sam did). But at least Sam didn't get choked!

Completely shallow aside, in that final shot of Sam at the sink it definitely seems he's got blond highlights in his hair. I like them.

The final scene was clunky to me in its staging, with Ruby repeatedly walking towards and facing away from Dean. There was a lot of dialogue to go through and nothing really for the actors to do in that setting, but I found it distracting. However, I liked the exposition in the final scene, with Ruby confirming what I'd speculated back in Sin City, that all demons were human once. It's also interesting to see how Ruby and Sam are on the same page. I thought it was rather startling to hear Sam apparently giving up on saving Dean, and Ruby, of course, being certain he can't. And both of them thinking the key to making Sam who he needs to be is more like Dean. But Ruby also seems to be set up to be Sam's mirror. Whereas Sam is human and fighting off his demonic side, Ruby is a demon who is clinging to her humanity, meaning they're meeting in the middle. While I think some will see this revelation about Ruby to be a softening of her character, to me it's a strengthening of it. Because it seems to me now that what she's doing, she's doing for herself, not for anyone else. She wants to save humanity so that she'll have something to go back to, which she'll lose should the demons win.

Of course Sam and Dean are already well out of the norm. In many ways the Winchesters already lead a pretty shady life, it's not difficult to understand why Henricksen has the view of them he does. In fact that's one of the things I find the show actually does well, is to give negative outside views of them frequently -- from Bela's calling them sociopaths, Henricksen calling them extremist survivalists, the demons calling humans immoral hypocrites, etc. Really, one could easily write an outside POV story where the Winchesters really were the terrifying monsters themselves. The show relies a lot on the basic likability of their leads and the insider POV the audience has.

From a more fandom viewpoint, there's been increasing dissatisfaction with the misogyny on the show. It has been there all along but I'm not sure it's really a necessary byproduct of the aesthetic -- male centered, sure, but I don't think that has to automatically mean oblivious to the implications of what they're saying and doing. For example, the relative exclusion of female characters is something I don't consider much of a problem (from a show standpoint -- from an industry standpoint, or a fandom hysteria standpoint, it's another story). I think given the set-up of the show and the nature of the leads, everyone who appears is going to be a villain, a victim, a bystander or, on rare occasions, a helper/love interest. Over the course of a season it's natural that there's going to be a lot of women falling into those first two categories. In fact, what's ironic about this episode is those problems become visible exactly because we see women in all those roles here (the lone bystander is a man). I didn't have nearly the problem with this episode that I had with some others this season.

Given how upsetting a lot of people seem to have found the language in this episode though, I wonder if part of what seems to be problematic this season is the fact that we're seeing things come out of the Winchesters directly. We've moved from having some questionable issues in the show's content, to having a lot of questionable things coming out of the character's mouths. For example, to me, the coldest thing Sam has done yet was to say to Dean that the Crossroads Demon "had a smart mouth" and leave the implication that this was the primary reason he shot her. In my previous review I mentioned various reasons he might have had at the time, but that's the reason we're offered in the next episode. Not only is this a boggling reason to kill an innocent victim (the possessed woman) but it's hardly much of a reason to kill the demon either (I mean, how many people could he say that of). The overtones of that statement were pretty disturbing to me.

And then there's Dean. On the one hand I'm really getting fed up with the way the character seems to be dumbed down more and more with each passing episode. It was almost startling to rewatch some S1 episodes and note that in those we have Sam and Dean rather equally knowing about details of lore and the hunting business. That made sense to me because while Sam was the researcher, Dean had more experience in the field. I'd expect them to share expertise, even while I find it reasonable to think that by S3 Sam will know more than Dean because he's now doing this full-time and in earnest. However the real smart-mouth of the show, Dean, now seems unable to make a comeback unless it's a slur against women or gays, and seems to find it beneath him to have any knowledge of the cases. S1 Dean could be pretty sleazy but he's reaching new levels of crassness. And given he's the more popular character I think that's what's actually bothering people.

It would make perfect sense to me given the developments in this season that both characters would be shifting into something different for them. But it seems inconsistent and I'm not sure if that's due to stuff going on behind the scenes or what. But certainly the men connected to some of these events are less impressive than the women. For example, I was looking for some information about Samuel Colt and thought that [this was rather an interesting tidbit](http://www.sys-con.com/read/92936.htm):

_Elizabeth manufactured her husband's Colt 45 peacemaker 10 years after his death, which changed military history. The skills developed in arms manufacturing also applied to other metalworking industries. The corridor between New Haven, Connecticut, and Windsor, Vermont, became know as "Precision Valley" -- the "Silicon Valley" of its day. Elizabeth would have made the Fortune Top 10 list of her time, when women did not have voting rights. She was one of the first women patrons of American art, a philanthropist and organizer of the first suffragette convention in Connecticut._

Colt himself was a rather [less admirable figure](http://www.connhistory.org/wwsevis_reading.htm) _Right up to the time of his death Colt had been engaged in his "latest work on 'Moral Reform,'" that is, making money. His estate, which he left to his wife Elizabeth, his son Caldwell, and the son of his convicted murderer brother (whom many said was actually his own son by the woman Colt had brought to prison to marry his brother shortly before the execution), was valued at $15,000,000, an incredible fortune at that time._


End file.
